Theatre and Culture from Scotland, starring The List's Theatre Editor, his performance persona and occasional guest stars. Experimental writings, cod-academic critiques and all his opinions, stolen or original.

Wednesday, 19 February 2014

Dundee Rep does Agatha Christie

There seems to be a trend for nostalgia in theatre just now: Noel Coward's Private Lives at the Lyceum, the ghost of 7:84 whispering in Rantin, a few more contemporary revivals and the restaging of West Side Story that cleaves to its original choreography and direction. Up in Dundee, Kenny Miller (who has done plenty of new plays in his time) is directing and designing Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.

Apart from being originally published with a dodgy title, Christie's tale of a series of revenge killings has stood the test of time: given the plot - ten guests in a remote house, getting knocked off one by one - it is probably the ancestor of those modern torture porn films that I won't watch because I am too scared.Christie does it all with more taste, of course. It's in the mystery, not the bloodshed.
Press Release Begins:

From the best-selling novelist of all time, and the creator of the much-loved Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, comes a thrilling story of mystery and murder.

"The most baffling mystery Agatha Christie has ever written." The New York Times

Ten strangers arrive at a house on a remote island after receiving an invitation from an unknown host. Soon they realise they are trapped.

One by one they are accused of past crimes; one by one they begin to meet a gruesome end. With only a nursery rhyme to help them predict the next inventive, grisly murder, the diminishing group must try to discover the identity of the murderer.

Absurd opinions, extended reviews, random press releases from The Arts, half baked ideas, unsuccessful experiments with the format of criticism. Brought to you by the host of The Vile Arts Radio Hour and former Theatre Editor of The Skinny, now working with The List